G.I. Joe: Retaliation gets a new release date. Paramount has made the decision to convert the tentpole action pic to 3D. Lot of speculation out there as to why the studio decided to convert to 3D and move the pic to 2013. The most obvious are the box office success of the latest two 3D converted movies, Titanic and the Avengers. I think another reason is the growing appetite for 3D tentpole movies outside of the U.S especially the China market. Disney announced earlier this year that they will make Ironman 3 in partnership with a Chinese company.
James Cameron also announced that he may partner with a Chinese company on his future 3D pics if such issues as censorship, etc don’t interfere with his creative process.
Another big incentive, a deal was hammered out during Vice President Xi Jinping’s February visit to the United States that paved the way for the import of 14 premium format films such as IMAX or 3D which will be exempt from China’s annual quota of 20 foreign films per year.